Power and fortune
This is the next series of posts from hand-picked guest bloggers about power; they have also written about trust . The idea for this series was kicked off by me rewatching Game of Thrones and thinking about its twin themes of power and trust.
My second guest blogger to write about power is Susan Cooper, who comes from the corporate world and who I first met on Triberr but is now a firm friend on Twitter. Her first guest post on trust is a wonderful read and can be accessed here if you haven’t read it. Susan is now very happy being an artist, writer and blogger. Besides the fact that she tells really good stories, her biggest draw card to her blog www.findingourwaynow.com would be her delightful illustrations.
Have you ever wondered why a fortune teller – or whatever fortune predictor is at hand – has the power to convince us that what they (or it) have to say has real value? It’s fascinating to me how easy it is to take what a fortune teller has to say as a predictor of our good or bad fortune. That they – or it – have a crystal ball that can foretell any future event or events to come.
Let me give you an example. It’s fun to open a fortune cookie to see what the fortune will be. Many times we get some inane fortune that says something like: “You are a great person, with a good personality”. However, every now and then, we get one that hits home at just the right time that seems to speak just to us. We hold on to it, both physically and mentally. We put it in our purse or wallet. We post it on a bulletin board at work or home on the refrigerator. We hang on to it as if it were a message meant just for us. That the message we receive is from an unknown sage who has the ability to see into our future. Then we start looking for signs that the fortune is coming to pass… until we forget about it. So why do we do this? My belief is we do it because it makes us feel good for a time. We have the notion that something wonderful could happen because that particular fortune showed up at just the right moment.
I had one of these fortunes appear the other day. The fortune read: “You will be traveling and coming into a fortune”. My first thought was: “WOW!!! I am so ready for that!”. My second thought was: “Who knows? It could happen”. The first part of this fortune is already true. I travel fairly regularly. The second part is what we all hope for. So (don’t laugh) I bought a lottery ticket with the numbers that were below the fortune (now I know you’re laughing!). Now, I have to say that is real power, when something like that can move us to think that we could be the next lotto winner.
When we (at least I do) think of coming into a fortune, we think of winning a lottery, or inheriting a large sum of money from some unknown relative. Admit it: we even have plans (you know it’s true) as to how we would spend our winnings or windfall. The fact is: the possibility of either of these things happening is very remote, especially because many of us rarely buy a lottery ticket, or have a long-lost unknown relative. However, we still wait for that miracle, wishing and hoping that it will come to pass… and as soon as possible.I believe we do this same thing in our daily lives. We do this by waiting, praying, wishing and hoping for something magically to appear to make our lives “all better”. Doesn’t that sound about right? We can’t see the power that we possess to create our own good fortune. Metaphorically speaking, we miss the part about buying the “lottery ticket” of working towards a goal we desire.
So what occurred to me was, just maybe, the power and meaning of that fortune in the cookie is our journey in life leads to the good fortune of knowledge, friends and priceless experiences. This is where true wealth lies and what we should draw from when finding our way to a happy, purposeful – and yes – a wealthy life that is rich with all the experiences we would miss by waiting. Working towards a goal isn’t as sexy or as easy as winning the lotto or inheriting a fortune, but waiting for something that will never happen is most certainly a fruitless endeavor.
There are two lessons from this. The first lesson is: don’t wait for something to happen that will bring us good fortune. There is no power or sage out there who can tell us what the future holds. We shouldn’t wait for something magical to reveal itself to us. It certainly won’t come from a fortune teller or a cookie. The journey to any new opportunity is often a circuitous route so buy a “lottery ticket” by taking action that moves towards something. That “start of something” is most often right in front of us, even if it’s only to spend time on a favorite hobby. Just get started.
The second lesson is to look within ourselves for gifts we possess and have gained from our life’s experiences, and then find a way to use them. Aside from our natural gifts, I see the remaining successes as our reward for all the challenges we face and overcome, now and from our experiences. We just never know where one of these hard-earned gifts will take us unless we find a way to put them to good use. Now that is truest, purest power we all possess.
Life’s journey continues…
You made some very good points. My view is that if you take what or who is telling you something you would really like to see happen, like getting your dream job, perhaps that is the push you need to actually go out and make it happen. It basically results in a belief in yourself because the message indicates someone else believes in you too. Anyway, you are correct. Use those gifts you already have and go out and use them and see what your power can do. Great post Susan! 🙂
Thanks Cheryl, I have always enjoyed fortune tellers and the like. The key is to remember we have the power within us to make our future the way we want it to be. 🙂
Diane, Thanks for allowing me to post one of humble rumblings. It was great fun. You are a great twitter friend and blog partner.
My pleasure, Susan! It gives my blog depth to add other perspectives! 😉
Wow. Susan, your fortune cookie analogy made me chuckle. Once when I was leaving my job as a journalist and moving to another city to become a tax consultant, my editor took me and my team out for a farewell dinner. It was a Chinese Joint as he knows I love Fortune Cookies (well, they taste great also). The fortune strip read: Your boss will learn to appreciate you now. I still have this fortune strip with me.
You are right, sometimes we are so scared of failure that we don’t take any action which would have assured us happiness. Incidentally, I am just reading a book which talks of: Loving the man in the mirror and facing your demons.
I still have my fortune cookie strip as well. I just didn’t have the heart to throw it away. Oh and BTW… I didn’t win the lottery just encase you were wondering… LOL 🙂
Agree with you Susan. We definitely have to create our own future and not wait for it to happen.
Another side of that however is that now and then I dream things that happen. So there is more to life than meets the eye.
Thanks, You are so right about that Catarina. The mind is much more powerful then I think we can imagine.
Susan – so true. We often give more faith in these ‘fortune-tellers’ to predict our future than we do in ourselves to pursue something and make it happen. Sometimes we have to remember we don’t always need to ask for permission to do something…
Thanks Dan, We often wait for “the answer” instead o going to find it. But then again we are human. I know I certainly am. After all, I bought the lottery ticket and keep that fortune cookie fortune for a very long time… LOL
Great post, I love the insight. We all make our own fortunes and there is a reason they call them self-fulfilling prophecies. Though I did have a tarot card reading from someone I knew and trusted about 10 years ago and despite my skepticism I was blown away – especially over the months that followed as many of the specific predictions came true.
I found this site through Susan and am glad I did – I’ll be back again!
SD
Glad you like my blog! And Susan’s posts are always popular – what she had to say really resonates with readers. Always very happy that she agrees to write for me when I ask her. 🙂
This “sort of” reminds me of a story my Italian father in law tells. A man gives his son a plot of land and says that there is fortune, somewhere, at a depth of one metre on the plot of land. The boys dutifully dig the whole plot to a depth of one metre. Finding nothing, they decide to plant a crop on it. The bountiful crop that came from tilling the soil gave them a fortune, but not in the way they had expected.
Perhaps sometimes we just need the faith to keep doing the right things and be flexible in how we receive the reward.
That’s an excellent story, Cullen. And it’s a wonderful metaphor for life.
What a great metaphor of how we can be our our fortune cookie Susan. I’ve been acting on your Lesson #1 in a new way for myself. It’s an LOA tool from Michael Losier: Evidence of Abundance 10 Day Journal. It’s doing what the intention is in getting me to observe the abundance I already have. And that goes to your lesson #2 of looking within ourselves. It’s amazing how when you start noticing what is already there, MORE abundance comes.
Patricia from LinkedIn BHB
Susan — You are so right that our fortunes are to be found in our family, our friends, and our trusted business connections. Ironically, however, some people do find riches in fortune cookies. A number of years ago, 12 people picked the winning number in a lottery drawing. Statistically, that was almost impossible, so the Lottery officials skampered to find out if some fraud had been committed. Turned out that 12 individuals had gotten a fortune cookie and played the number of the fortune!
Susan, I love your fortune cookie blog…but then I love all of your blogs. I am a steadfast believer like Cullen making the connection of his Italian father in-law’s plot of land story. Nobody really knows what the future holds. But in living a rich life of faith, purpose, friends, family and business connections/clients with a glass no less than half full appreciation and attitude for life—the outlook is soooo bright. Someone told me once,”Hey, any time one wakes up in the morning…that’s a GOOD day!!!
Thanks for turning me on to this blog Susan!
Thank you for stopping by, Shirla 😀